Mom Takes Back the House

Welcome to my year-long journey in decluttering and organizing my home! I have twins, an infant son, & one on the way, so I’m taking full advantage of the nesting phase. Why a whole year when there are so many methods to do it in 30 days or less? Did I mention I’m pregnant and have 3 small children? I’m pacing myself.

Before you recoil in horror at some the pictures I’ll post, I feel you should know a little about me and how our family lives.

I love organization!

I’ve been reading organizing books/articles since I was a little girl. Even to this day, I peruse the stacks at the library or Amazon.com for the latest release in home & life organization. It’s just one of my things. When I turned 10 years old, one of my Christmas gifts was an oak-finish filing cabinet. It was beautiful. And I used it to the best of my tween knowledge.

To this day, every CD and DVD in my house is alphabetized. Every spice jar in the spice cabinet—alphabetized. All my books are categorized—I even went through a small stint in married life BC (before children) when I used the Dewey Decimal system (nerd alert!) to organize my books. My clothes closet is always near to immaculate…my husband’s, not so much. Since being married, I’ve learned that I have to remember that I don’t live in this house alone and there’s no possible way I can follow my family around every second and put their stuff in its proper place. I want to…but I’m trying not to let the crazy show too much.

I’m going to be brutally honest with you, though. In the past, my organization methods bordered on compulsive. And that type of organization does not, I repeat, DOES NOT mix with young children—not three of them, and if all keeps going the same direction, not four either!

Before children, my organization was very flawed. I thought I could keep up with the madness where it took me so long to organize and keep up the organization than to actually do the tasks that used the organizational method. That is NOT living an organized life. True, bonafide, working organization should be easy and efficient to use. Children have a way of showing you these things. By their very existence, they suddenly make you less germaphobic, less selfish, more vigilant, and—by nature of sheer volume of stuff—less organized. At least in the showroom, magazine-cover-photo way.

This journey is mostly for me, but i’d love your company.

I’m using this series to keep me accountable. Let’s just say you are my support group. You’re going to keep me on the wagon long enough to dump the stuff we don’t need and organize what’s left in a reasonable easy-to-keep-organized way. And, hopefully, some of the methods and tips will help you do the same!

Here are a few things to note about each installment:

We rent, so I won’t be using permanently fixed furniture/gadgets for organization.

Bins, boxes, and baskets will be budget-conscious.

Kid-accessible areas will be kid-friendly organized

EVERY area will be touched, even if just to reassess with an objective eye

And now… it’s time that Mom Takes Back the House!

Until the series is over (approximately 52 articles), this list will be updated weekly.